A typical vial, such as a medicament vial, includes a vial body defining a chamber for storing a substance to be dispensed, such as a medicament, and a needle-penetrable stopper received within a mouth of the vial body that seals the medicament or other substance within the chamber. In order to withdraw the substance from the vial, the following steps are typically performed. First, the physician or the nurse must fill the syringe with air, and such air, particularly from a hospital, is not sterile. Second, the stopper must be pierced with the syringe needle in order to place the needle tip in fluid communication with the vial chamber. Third, the non-sterile air from the syringe is injected into the vial with enough pressure for the compressed air to replace the volume of liquid pulled into the syringe. Fourth, the vial is put upside down, with the syringe needle vertically beneath the vial, for the liquid of the vial to be drained from the open end of the needle. Then, the plunger of the syringe is pulled vertically downward to, in turn, draw the liquid into the syringe through the immerged tip of the needle in the upside-down vial. Once the syringe is filled, if air has been drawn into the syringe, it is forced out by pushing the plunger with the syringe in the upside-down position in order to eject any air up to the first drop of liquid pushed into the syringe needle. Then, the syringe is used to inject the withdrawn medicament or other substance into, or to otherwise administer it to, a patient.
One of the drawbacks of such a typical known vial is that each time the stopper is pierced with a syringe needle to withdraw a dose of medicament or other substance, the syringe has to be pre-filled with contaminated air from the environment. The needle also can accidentally contact the fingers of the medical personnel or other contaminated surfaces and, as a result, introduce more germs, bacteria or other contaminants into the vial chamber.
A second drawback is that the air injected during previous withdrawals from a multiple dose vial can lead to the reproduction of germs initially contained in the air and injected into the vial. The first withdrawal of the liquid out of a multiple dose vial may be contaminated by the ambient air initially injected into the vial as described above, but between the air injection into the vial and the withdrawal of the liquid, there is not enough time for the germs contained in the air to reproduce in many colonies. However, it can be increasingly dangerous to withdraw liquid from that vial when the amount of dose already withdrawn has been in contact with the germs of previous injections of air into the vial. Accordingly, such vials cannot be safely used to dispense multiple doses of the medicament or other substance without risk of contaminating the substance remaining within the vial chamber after multiple doses have been withdrawn.
A third drawback of the traditional method is that the needle may accidentally stick the skin of the medical personnel, and as a result, may transfer to the patients, contaminants from the blood of the medical personnel, such as hepatitis, a professional disease of medical personnel in general, AIDS, or other ailments.
Yet another drawback is due to the needle transfer when medical personnel withdraw the needle from the vial after the syringe has been filled. At that time the finger of the physician or nurse can be accidentally stuck by the needle and thereby infected with a product contaminated by germ growth in the multiple dose container.